Brian Alexander Lavender Briggs, Abby Myers, Marilyn discussed on The Her Hoop Stats Podcast
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Loose mentally types and Arthur Ashe quote that I lived by. And it makes sense, right? Because you don't want to go out there like tight minded. Afraid to make a mistake. Or not playing to your true potential because, you know, you don't know what the coach may say. Listen, and don't use that as an excuse either for coaches who are intense and asking you to be your best, don't use it as an excuse like they're mad at me. Nobody's mad at you. Listen, we want to win, okay? You can't just want to win. And coaches know they need your best in your role to win. So how do you get the best out of them? You tell them what you need from them. We need your best. We need you to fight in your role. Okay? And we need to make sure that we're working together, right? And it's all about team. I mean, I don't care however you cut it. You can split hairs all you want to. But it's all about the collective mentality, letting the players know that you trust them, hoping the players feel it and trust you back. But that's just the key. And I think that's what we saw with Marilyn. We saw it written up on the chalkboard of the whiteboard, whatever. In the locker room. And then throughout the game, you saw, you know, the execution from the players. So, I mean, kudos to the players for that because sometimes you write up what you want. And you go out there and it's not happening, man it is so frustrating. So I get it, but you know, it went from the whiteboard to the court for the Turks. One, and the defense led into their offense. I mean, 26 fast break points, Brian Alexander lavender Briggs. Abby Myers killing it on the offensive boards like, yeah, we're talking about the defense. Marilyn couldn't miss a shot either. They did miss a shot. They got the offensive rebound. And it was just like, hey, it's a beautiful night in college park. They've had a few of those this year on the men's and women's side. Great crowd, like great, great energy happening with the turf. So it should be marquee win for them. And I think they're making the case for a once again. I mean, we just got the second top 6 to reveal. We'll talk about that a little bit. There are two seed, but you know, the wonderful thing about college basketball, unlike college football, is that you get a chance to make your case in the postseason. You get a conference tournament. They have this game against Ohio State. You know, they build how to stay on the road. They win a couple tournament games, maybe win the whole Big Ten tournament, then I think they're kind of a lock for a one. Maybe if they even make it to the championship and lose to really good Indiana team, they may have a case there too. So I found this to be the win that you could have pictured with this Maryland team when they got together this off season. In terms of seeing how that team came together and now it's finally all gelling for them. But you know, I think also, you know, we should take this time, you know, everything that you just said about this team and how they were coached and how they were put into the right positions to execute. I think it all makes the case for Brenda freeze being a coach of the year candidate. I mean, she loses two great players national I wish to anchor Reese and it's still coming back and making a case for a once a year. I mean, I think she's just done a phenomenal job with this team. And against really great competition because Iowa is a really good team to let you that score fool you. Ohio State's a really good team. Indiana's a great team as well. She has a case for coach of the year in my opinion. Yeah, I mean, how not? I guess is the question. I mean, they had that statement went earlier in the year over UConn in December. Had never done that before. And I think, you know, just looking back over Brenda freeze's career. And I know it's about this year being coach of the year. But put a pin in that thought for two seconds because we're maybe 20 seconds. Anyway, but just flashback to when Alyssa Thomas was coming through. And went to two final fours. And on one of those teams that ELISA Thomas was on when they went to the final four, I believe they had 6 healthy bodies, what happened so they had four players who had knee injuries, ACLs, or meniscus situations, right? I think it was two ACLs to MCLs or maybe three ACLs. But anybody, they were all out. Anyway, all four players were out with knee injuries. Like, not coming back. And then they had one who had mono. So she couldn't play. So I'm like, oh my gosh, like, how do you practice? I remember I had one of the games like around this time of year, you know? Like, what are your practices look like? Because you have 6 guys out there. You have to get super creative. I mean, you can't do three on three. The whole time. How do you emulate and get your scout done, you know, and they have the scout players, but at the same time, you know, they weren't going full throttle with what they could do on the court in practice. So in the games, they could have legs and sometimes during the games Brenda free said the timeouts were to get some rest. It wasn't like it wasn't a momentum feel, you know, what you feel a time out, like you just feel the time out. I still do. I mean, I didn't coach this year, but I'm watching games, so I'm like. And then sometimes they do it sometimes they don't. But you feel it. It's a feel. It's a rhythm. The beautiful part about basketball is that it's so rhythmic, right? You have to love that about the game. So it's a feel. So anyway, she would call time out to give the players a break, you know? But they made it to the final four. So she's been here done that. This is not her first rodeo in terms of getting the right pieces together. And pushing them to the standards of Meryl and basketball. And when you see what they've done this year, in particular, with 9 new players, 9 of them, 9 of them, okay? And one returning starter. One, just one, one, returning starter and diamond Miller. It's pretty incredible to think about. And I'm not just saying this as an alum because other people have said this too. So don't play with me. Don't at me, even though should I say about my Twitter or no. Yeah. But don't at me because someone's being foolish and just hacked my Twitter so I haven't been we're going to find you. Yeah, assist ridiculous. I don't know. And I need that. But anyway, that's why I have my IG name there. Whatever. Whatever but still, don't hit me on IG with any negativity about what I'm saying. Because it's true. And find some lack of truth in what I'm saying. So stop playing with me. Don't make it about anything other than what it is and that's what's right in front of us. What Marilyn has been able to do is present their best selves. And they've been able to play, well, in big games. So it's just going to be very interesting how they close out on the road, at Ohio State. Like you said, it's the Ohio State senior night. So you know that's always full of emotion.